A ‘spammy’ website decides to copy your content – be it text, photos or something else – without permission and also ignores your repeated requests (and warnings) to remove the stolen material from their server.

You are left with no other option but to file a DMCA complaint with Google to get your copied content removed from Gogle search results and also to AdSense if the other website is using Google Ads to monetize “your” content.

Google has made it extremely easy for web publishers to file DMCA complaints. They provide simple online forms for reporting copyright infringement on Google properties like AdSense, Blogger, YouTube and Web Search and you need not have a legal background to submit such requests.

What happens next? Google also offers a DMCA Dashboard where you can track the status of DMCA complaints that you made to Google for web search.

Track your DMCA Complaints to Google

If your complaint is accepted, Google will remove the relevant pages of the offending site from its search results and will also forward a copy of your DMCA notice to the Chilling Effects website for archiving – the complaint becomes public at this point.

The DMCA dashboard is part of the Google Webmasters website so there’s a possibility that it may only work for sites that you have registered with webmaster tools. Also, it only tracks complaints related to Google Search at this time.